Today in NHL History, Feb 29th

1936: Hall of Famer Henri Richard born in Montreal, Que. Richard played in the NHL 1955-56 through 1974-75 with Montreal.

1948: New York Rangers defeated Montreal 5-3 at MSG. After the game, Rangers' goalie Jim Henry fainted in the dressing room, suffering from "nervous exhaustion".....Roy Conacher scored two goals and an assist and Doug Bentley picked up three assists to lead the Black Hawks to a 5-1 win against Boston in Chicago.

1960: Former NHL center Dan Daoust born in Montreal, Que. Daoust played in the NHL 1982-83 through 1989-90 with Montreal and Toronto.

1964: Former NHL right winger Lyndon Byers born in Nipawin, Sask. Byers played in the NHL 1983-84 through 1992-93 with Boston and San Jose.....Montreal's Ralph Backstrom scored his 100th career goal, and Charlie Hodge recorded his second consecutive shutout (and the 13th of his career) in the Canadiens' 4-0 win over the Rangers, at the Forum.....Montreal's Ralph Backstrom scored his 100th career goal, and Charlie Hodge recorded his second consecutive shutout (and the 13th of his career) in the Canadiens' 4-0 win over the Rangers, at the Forum.

1968: Wayne Rutledge became the first goaltender in Los Angeles Kings history to win 20 games in one season. The milestone victory was a 3-1 win against the Flyers at Philadelphia.

1976: Philadelphia Flyers extended their team-record home winning streak to 11 straight games, and won the 300th regular season game in team history, 6-1 over the Oakland Seals, at the Spectrum.....Boston Bruins' goaltender Gilles Gilbert extended his NHL-record winning streak to 17 straight games, with a 5-3 win over Vancouver, at Boston Garden.

1980: Hartford's Gordie Howe scored his 800th NHL goal to help the Whalers to a 3-0 win over St. Louis, in the Blues' 1,000th regular season game. Al Smith recorded his 10th (and final) career shutout.

1984: Bernie Federko scored three goals and an assist to lead the Blues to a 7-5 win against the North Stars at Minnesota. It was Federko's 8th career hat trick, a new team record. Garry Unger held the old mark with 7 hat tricks for the Blues.....Hartford Whalers signed Dave Tippett as a free agent.....Patrik Sundstrom scored a goal and added six assists as Vancover won 9-5 over the Penguins at Pittsburgh. Sundstrom was just the third player in NHL history to get six assists in a road game (Billy Taylor and Bobby Orr were the others).....Pat LaFontaine and Patrick Flatley made their NHL debuts, when the Islanders won 4-3 over the Jets, at Winnipeg. Flatley scored a goal and had an assist in the game

1988: New York Rangers held a "Marcel Dionne" night at MSG, and Dionne assisted on the Rangers' first goal on their way to a 5-2 win over St. Louis.....Former U.S. Olympic team captain Brian Leetch made his NHL debut and picked up an assist for his first NHL point as the Rangers won 5-2 over the Blues, at MSG.

1992: Ray Bourque scored a goal and two assists to give him 1,000 career points in the Bruins' 5-5 tie against the Caps, at Boston Garden. He became just the third defenseman in NHL history (after Potvin and Coffey) to score 1,000 career points.

1996: Wayne Gretzky played his first game as a member of the St. Louis Blues, and scored his first goal with the team in a 2-2 tie at Vancouver.....Gary Roberts scored his 10th career hat trick to become the third player in franchise history to score 250 goals as a member of the Flames. The milestone came when Calgary won 7-3 over the Penguins, at the Saddledome.....Detroit Red Wings set a team record with their 27th home win of the season, a 5-1 victory over the visiting New York Islanders. With the victory, Chris Osgood tied a team record (held by Terry Sawchuk) with his ninth straight win

2004: Carolina's Ron Francis became just the second player in NHL history to score 10 (or more) goals for 23 straight seasons, when he connected for the Hurricanes in a 3-3 tie at Minnesota. Francis tied the record set by Gordie Howe.....San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov set a team record with his 8th shutout of the season (and the 25th of his career), and rookie Jonathan Cheechoo scored the only goal as the Sharks won 1-0 against the visiting St. Louis Blues.....Detrot's Nicklas Lidstrom became just the 4th player - and first defenseman - to play 1,000 games with the Red Wings, in a 4-2 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. Robert Lang had three assists in his debut with Detroit.....Pittsburgh's Ryan Malone set an NHL rookie record with his third overtime goal of the season, when he scored at 2:45 of OT in the Penguins 3-2 win over the New York Islanders. It was his 20th goal of the season.